Character and Leadership Development
Empowering youth to support and influence their Club and community, sustain
meaningful relationships with others, develop a positive self-image,
participate in the democratic process and respect their own and
others cultural identities
Specific Character and Leadership Development Programs:
Youth of the Year
Our premier youth
recognition program for Club members. All members can benefit from
participation in this program, which promotes and celebrates service to
Club, community and family; academic performance; moral character; life
goals; and poise and public speaking ability.
Torch Club
Small-group leadership and
service club for boys and girls ages 11-13. The Staples National Torch
Club Awards are presented annually to Torch Clubs with outstanding
program and activities in the four areas. Staples Foundation for
Learning, Inc. and Staples, Inc. sponsor the Torch Club program.
Goals for Growth
Goals for Growth teaches
Club members ages 8-12 skills for setting and achieving goals, helps
them identify their own strengths and enhances their self-esteem by
reinforcing their progress and recognizing their success in realizing
their goals. Members set goals in six areas: Club involvement; discovery
of new knowledge, skills or pastimes; service to others; school
improvement; personal improvement; and career awareness.
Education and Career Development
Enabling youth to become proficient
in basic educational disciplines, apply learning to everyday situations
and embrace technology to achieve success in a career.
Specific Education and Career Development Programs:
Project Learn
Project Learn reinforces
and enhances the skills and knowledge young people learn at school
during the hours they spend at the Club. Students do much better in
school when they spend their non-school hours engaged in fun, but
academically beneficial, activities. Through Project Learn, Club staff
use all the areas and programs in the Club to create opportunities for
these high-yield learning activities, which include leisure reading,
writing activities, discussions with knowledgeable adults, helping
others, homework help and tutoring and games like Scrabble that develop
young peoples cognitive skills. Project Learn also emphasizes parent
involvement and collaboration between Club and school professionals as
critical factors in creating the best after-school learning environment
for Club members ages 6-18. Extensively field-tested and formally
evaluated by Columbia University with funding from Carnegie Corporation
of New York, Project Learn has been proven to boost the academic
performance of Club members.
Goals for Graduation
Goals for
Graduation, a Project Learn resource, introduces academic goal setting
to Club members ages 6-15 by linking their future aspirations with
concrete actions today. In goal-setting sessions with Club
youth development professionals, members set achievable "Know-I-Can"
Goals, more challenging "Think-I-Can" Goals, and yearly
"Believe-I-Can" goals. Members create an action plan with daily and
weekly goals leading to short- and long-term gains. A comprehensive
guidance strategy helps members connect their smallest results to their
highest dreams. An encouraging recognition strategy buoys members as
their successes are recognized and supported at every step of their
journey.
Power Hour: Making Minutes Count
Power
Hour helps Club members ages 6-12 be more successful in school by
providing homework help and tutoring and encouraging members to become
self-directed learners.
CareerLaunch
CareerLaunch encourages
Club members ages 13-18 to assess their skills and interests, explore
careers, make sound educational decisions and prepare to join our
nations ever-changing work force.
JOB READY!
JOB READY! prepares Club
members ages 16-18 with specific skills to secure employment and be
successful in the world of work. Teens learn how to identify job
opportunities, write effective sums, perform well in interviews,
dress appropriately, develop good work habits and get along well with
others in the workplace. JOB READY!
Junior Staff Career Development
Junior
Staff Career Development is a comprehensive, small-group program that
assists Club members ages 11-18 in exploring a career in youth or human
services, particularly Boys & Girls Club work.
Skill Tech I and II
Skill Tech is a basic
computer skills program that develops Club members� proficiency with
word processing, spreadsheet and other productivity software through
fun, hands-on, engaging lessons and projects for four age groups. Skill
Tech II is designed to teach advanced, yet practical technology skills
to Club members aged 6 to 18. Using animated, interactive tutorials on
courseware developed exclusively for Boys & Girls Clubs, as well as
hands-on, instructor-led group activities, Skill Tech II introduces
members to hardware and networking skills and technology-related career
opportunities.
Money Matters: Make It Count
Money
Matters promotes financial responsibility and independence among Club
members ages 13-18 by building their basic money management skills.
Participants learn how to manage a checking account, budget, save and
invest. They also learn about starting small businesses and paying for
college.
Health and
Life Skills
Developing young people's capacity to engage
in positive behaviors that nurture their own well-being, set personal
goals and live successfully as self-sufficient adults.
Specific Health and Life Skills Programs:
SMART (Skills Mastery and Resistance Training)
Moves
This nationally acclaimed comprehensive prevention program
helps young people resist alcohol, tobacco and other drug use, as well
as premature sexual activity. SMART Moves features engaging,  interactive,
small-group activities that increase participants peer support,
enhance their life skills, build their resiliency and strengthen their
leadership skills. This year-round program encourages collaborations
among Club staff, youth, parents and representatives from other
community organizations. The program's components are: SMART Kids, for
ages 6-9; Start SMART, for ages 10-12; Stay SMART, for ages 13-15; and
SMART Parents.
SMART Girls
SMART Girls is a small-group
health, fitness, prevention/education and self-esteem enhancement
program designed to meet the developmental needs of girls ages 8-12 and
13-17. Through dynamic sessions, highly participatory activities, field
trips and mentoring opportunities with adult women, Club girls explore
their own and societal attitudes and values as the build skills for
eating right, staying physically fit, getting good health care and
developing positive relationships with peers and adults
Street SMART
Street SMART counteracts
the negative lures of gangs, violence and street influences on
young adolescents ages 11-13. While building awareness and resistance
skills, participants develop the confidence and knowledge to make
intelligent choices. Street SMARTs four modules teach young people
how gangs work and how to resist being recruited, how to recognize and
resolve conflicts peacefully, how to become positive peer helpers and
how to recognize and respect the similarities and differences of others.
Participants reinforce what they have learned and share it with others
by organizing community events that promote the program's positive
messages.
Passport to Manhood
Passport to Manhood
promotes and teaches responsibility in Club boys ages 11-14. Passport to
Manhood consists of 14 sessions, each of which concentrates on a
specific aspect of manhood through highly interactive activities. Each
Club participant receives his own passport to underscore the
notion that he is on a personal journey of maturation and growth.
Passport to Manhood represents a targeted effort to engage young boys in
discussions activities that reinforce positive behavior.
The Arts
Enable
youth to develop their creativity and cultural awareness through
knowledge and appreciation of the visual arts, crafts, performing arts
and creative writing.
 Specific Arts
Programs:
National Fine Arts Exhibit Program
This
year-round program encourages artistic expression among Club members
ages 6-18 through drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, mixed media
and sculpture displayed at local and regional exhibits.
ImageMakers National Photography Contest
This
year-round program encourages Club members ages 6-18 to learn and
practice black-and-white, color, digital and alternative process
photography. ImageMakers has three components: a photography programming
resource guide full of fun, creative activity ideas for three skill
levels; small grants for Clubs to start or strengthen photography
programs; and an annual photography contest that provides local,
regional and national recognition.
Digital Arts Suite and Festivals
Club
Tech's suite of self-directed digital arts courseware consists of Web
Tech (Web page design), Design Tech (graphic design), Photo Tech (photo
illustration) and Music Tech. Movie Tech contains detailed instructor
materials for teaching members to write screenplays and facilitating the
hands-on process of filming and editing digital movies. Once Club
members have participated in these programs, they can submit their
digital artwork to the annual Digital Arts Festivals competitions
Sports, Fitness and Recreation
Developing fitness, positive use of
leisure time, skills for stress management, appreciation for the
environment and social skills.
Specific Sports, Fitness and Recreation Programs:
 Triple Play
Introducing
Triple Play: A Game Plan for Mind, Body and Soul. This program takes a
holistic approach to educating boys and girls about good nutrition,
making physical fitness a daily practice and developing individual
strengths and good character. Through this program we are:
- Empowering youth to eat right is a
generation-changing, life-enhancing program goal, and Triple Play's
nutrition component, called Healthy Habits, covers the power of choice,
calories, vitamins and minerals, the food pyramid and appropriate
portion size
- Boosting traditional physical activities to a
higher level by providing sports and fitness activities for all youth;
boys and girls, athletically gifted and those talented in other
areas, children and teens alike. Daily Fitness Challenges: six
challenges give youth at every age the chance to play longer and harder
at different games, from jumping rope to basketball and creating
games of their own.
- Basketball Challenge
- Jump Rope Challenge
- Get Fit Challenge
- Walk/Run Challenge
- Home Run Challenge
- Invent-a-Sport Challenge
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